Materials and process technology: materials [flip chip assembly]

A new assembly process for flip chip assembly has been demonstrated to be feasible for manufacturing. The use of heated thermodes on the bonding heads of the flip chip bonder allows the underfill encapsulant, whether film or paste, to be rapidly cured. This eliminates the need for underfill after bump attach and improves the reliability of the flip chip assembly. The NCF and NCP processes also offer the industry an assembly method for achieving high throughput flip chip attach at lower manufacturing costs. This new assembly process couples electrically conductive polymer bumps with a new generation of polymeric encapsulants that can be applied before bumping.